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Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Tupolev Tu-104B with two Mikulin AM-3M-500 engines, registered СССР-42506, originally to the Uzbekistan division of the state airline, Aeroflot. At the time of the accident the aircraft had 20,582 flight hours and sustained 9412 pressurization cycles. The aircraft had 100 passenger seats, hence it was at full passenger capacity when it crashed.[1][3]

Synopsis

Weather conditions at Sverdlovsk were reported to be mild; visibility was over 6 kilometers, and light northwest winds.[1]

Flight 3932 was on the Sverdlovsk-Knevichi route with stopovers at Omsk, Tolmachevo, Kadala, and Khabarovsk airports. The flight crashed shortly after takeoff on the Koltsovo-Omsk part of the route.[1][2]

The flight took off from Koltsovo Airport at 18:33 Moscow time and at 18:34:21 headed on a bearing of 256° for the route to Omsk. As a routine procedure, air traffic control instructed the crew to make a left turn and climb to an altitude of 1500 meters after takeoff; the crew responded that they would report when they reached the altitude.[2]

At 18:35:25 Moscow time, 5–6 seconds after setting the engines to standard power, with altitude of 350–400 meters and a speed of 480 km/h the crew began the left turn while in the clouds, with a bank angle between 35-40°. At 20:37, when the flight was at an altitude of 1200 meters, the bank angle reached 75-80°, after which the crew completely lost control of the aircraft. The plane crashed into a nearby forest at a speed of 270 km/h.[1][2]

Cause

The aircraft crashed due to incorrect indications by the main artificial horizon and the compass system, caused by a failure of the electrical supply, resulting in spatial disorientation of the pilots. The aircraft crashed approximately five miles from Koltsovo Airport.[1][4]

See also

Aeroflot Flight 964, also a Tupolev Tu-104, which crashed just two weeks after Flight 3932 experiencing similar electrical failures.